Anyone else run to the fridge to grab a beer right after church or is that just me?

For real though, I had a terrible lingering hunger headache after I ate and sometimes beer just does the trick.

I would have still drank the beer sans headache tho. Ain't no shame in my game.

Wearing:

Shawl thingy - Ross Dress for Less $5.99

(Had to sew it together down both sides because most of the stitching was completely gone and it was being held together on one side with three loose stitches.

Sari Magic Wrap Skirt - one of 6 from a wholesale lot.

Camisole - Old faded worn out $1 Walmart find.

So what did you guyz miss while I was lost in cyberspace?

River started Pre-K.

Yeah, his face says it all. This was taken the morning of the first day. I don't think he's ever had to wake up at 6AM before and I'm sure the last time I had to wake up that early was to get to my scheduled C-section appointment to deliver Cedar.

Monday, August 14, 2017

I wish I had something good to say, but these past two weeks have been just awful.

This YEAR has been awful. Probably one of the worst years ever for me.

I don't even know where to start and I don't really feel comfortable going into too much detail on here but I will say that my husband and I are having some "adulting" issues. Not adultery issues.... ADULTING.

You know, the act of being an adult?

Yeah, we're sucking at it.

I've been doing a lot of just sweeping thoughts and emotions under the rug and I'm feeling kind of numb. I know that sounds dangerous but in my case it's actually rather nice.

I love not feeling anything right now.

I know I'm going to crack and that's ok. I need to.

It'll happen in due time but for now I can say things like, "Look at my pretty dress!" and mean it!

As usual, this dress came from Ross Dress for Less. A little more than I care to pay for a dress at about $12 but I was shopping with gift money from a very special friend. I'm not sure if she'd want her name mentioned but you know who you are!

I've been lusting after this style of dress for ages so when I saw it at Ross I just couldn't resist. It's a 2X is which should be plenty big but for some reason this dress didn't allow for much room in bust. Too lazy to go exchange it for a bigger size I just forced it over the girls and took made sure to breathe very carefully so I didn't bust any seams.

The details of the dress are quite lovely. It's crinkle rayon(?) with machine embroidery and little tassels. Seriously one of my fave dresses now.

Sorry for the poopoo phone photos. It was pretty cloudy and had just stopped raining. I didn't want to wrestle with a real camera in those conditions.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

I'm taking a break from my work to blawg over here for right now. I need to talk. I need adult interaction and sometimes my blog is the only place I can get it.

**SOBS** It's been a terrible week!!! Kids and poop and pee and disobedience and PMS and housework and bills and cooking and laundry! UUUUUUUGHHHH!!!!

And it's SO HOT outside! The heat and humidity is outrageous!!

It's only getting up to about 90-95F outside which isn't so bad when the humidity is low but that rarely happens here. It's HUMID here. HUUUUUUUUMIIIIIID.

Texas summer hasn't even reached it's peak yet. It gets up to about 102 and even as much as 104 when things get into full swing. Add humidity to those temps and well... you ever been in a sauna?

I went grocery shopping Saturday and I felt like I was about to have a heart attack from just walking to and from my car. No lie. I was sweating buckets, I was light headed and having heart palpitations!

But wait... is it really THAT hot or have I gotten that fat???

Both.

I'm sure it's both.

I've been spending most of my days indoors, only going out to take the trash to the dumpster and let the kids play with the water hose after the house shadow has covered the entire yard.

I. HATE. SUMMER.

Enough of my complaining.

I scored this dress at Ross Dress for Less for $9. I love it! I love the way it fits. I got boob room, nothing tugs or pulls and the two slits in the skirt let the breeze in... mmmmm... swoooosh...

It's wonderful! It also came in burnt orange. I'm getting super into bold colors these days but I think I might go back and get that one too because this simple dress is stellar.

And here's little Cedar girl in her new-to-us Vietnamese blouse. I found it on swap.com and it came with lavender satin pants. I'm not sure if that was the outfit or if the store paired it like that but it wasn't a good match. We went for white leggings instead for church. You probably can't tell in the photos that it's chiffon over satin. Fancy!

Since I'm only taking a break right now, I might not be able to get to blog reading until tomorrow.

Monday, July 17, 2017

I won the City of Texarkana's photo contest a couple weeks ago. I won the "community events" category and Best in Show with this photo below:

The photo is of my friend (and ren faire merchant and supporter) throwing beads in the Mardi Gras parade a couple years ago. The photo isn't the best quality, but I chose it because it features a faire person, Mardi Gras, downtown and a historical building. I guess that's what they were looking for and I won!

I didn't even know there was a real prize. I was quite content to only have my photo featured on the city's website but it turns out the prize was a staycation and free dinner at a local hotel. Woooo!! Me and the husband sent to kids to spend the night with my mom and started the evening at the TRAHC's (Texarkana Regional Arts & Humanities Council) 29th Annual Juried Exhibit Opening Reception for some art and wine.

We arrived fashionably late. Wait. Let me stop there.

Ok, what's the deal with people not dressing up for events anymore?

The public invitation stressed business attire but I guess blue jeans and Hawaiian print shirts are the thing now? Me and the husband have been to a few local events... FORMAL events where people have showed up in work uniforms, jeans and tee shirts. We once attended a formal charity banquet and I was absolutely appalled to see that my husband and I, the volunteers and one doctor were the only one's in formal attire out of about 200 people. One woman's dress was so short, she squatted down to pick something up and I could see all that she wasn't wearing under her dress. I rushed over to her to inform her and she was quite grateful for the warning. Dress appropriately to folks. No one should be able to see your cooter at a formal event.

I brought my camera but totally left the card at home so I had to use my phone to snap pics from the evening. All of the is from artists in the region.

After the reception we picked up booze at the liquor store, got to the hotel, checked in and headed for dinner. It was almost 9pm so the dining area wasn't very busy but there was only one server who was being ran between waiting tables and a room service. It took foreeeeeeever to get our food and drinks, we were starving and the prices were outrageous!

Luckily dinner came with the contest winnings because we would never ever pay that much for food unless it made us poop diamonds. The food was decent but my salmon was absolutely crusted in salt that had to be scraped off to make it edible and husband's steak was super poor quality. Not worth the price at all. Snobby snob meat talk. Blah, blah, blah.

We got to the room and realized that we were too dang tired for any "special relations" so we sat on the couch and drank and watched cartoons just like we do every single night...

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

I'm currently eating ramen noodles, writing this blog post and another post over at QBM and folding laundry at the same time. This is nothing new. That's how I roll. Am I the queen of multitasking or do I just have ADD? Probably both.

How do I do it? I take a bite of food, fold a garment as I chew, then type something here. I switch over to the other blog post while of think of what to say next, then write something and then take a bite of food, switch back over... repeat.

So today is the 4th of July and you know what that means? Well do you?

No, really - I'm asking because I have no idea what that is.

Juuuuuust kidding.

We don't really have any special plans for today but we're going to grill some burgers made from brisket the husband ground up. We might let the kids shoot at barrels of gasoline with guns and or roman candles but I'm not sure yet. Our gas supply is still pretty low from the monster truck derby we hosted illegally in the field behind our house last week.

Because America.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to blog reading today, but I'll try my best!

Sunday, June 25, 2017

At five this morning, Cedar began to cry for her early morning milk. I tried to ignore her but she persisted and I gave in. When I got back to bed I struggled to go back to sleep (just like almost every day). I finally fell back asleep over an hour later and dreamed that I was driving around with a bunch of women I didn't recognize. We stopped at a house that had been converted into a vintage shop. I didn't know the store owner either and as the dream went on, she began to morph into blogger Vix.

Vix had a Jeep that was stuck in the mud outside her house/store and I was deeply concerned about this for some strange reason. Like worried sick. She was very lackadaisical about it and every time I looked, her vehicle had sank lower and lower into the ground. Gasp! That's no ordinary mud!

That's quicksand!

"Vix, that's quicksand. You need to get your Jeep out of there."

"Meh," she shrugged.

I looked again and the Jeep had sank so far that only the roof was visible. Vix smiled and walked away. I stopped panicking. I no longer cared about her sinking Jeep because she didn't care. I had nothing to stress about if she had nothing to stress about. (That's not how life works by the way).

Later, on the side porch of her house/shop, former US president Barack Obama pulls up in a silver Mercedes and walks onto the porch. He wore a dark green polo shirt, blue jeans and something on his head that transformed between an Easter egg bobble headband and something else I don't remember - perhaps a jester hat?

He and Vix begin chatting like old friends. Desperate to have a special moment with Mr. Obama as well, I began to tell him the story of Vix's sinking Jeep. He wasn't interested and didn't find it funny. I think he was high? I then tried to give him a complicated urban handshake: "shake, dap, bump, shake, twiddle thumbs, bump, finger guns, dap dap"... that kind of jive handshake but I failed so miserably at it that I forced myself to wake up.

River wore a new (to us) aloha shirt from the online consignment shop, Swap, handmedown khakis and Family Dollar shoes.

Cedar wore a tunic and leggings set that's been sitting in the closet for over a year waiting for her to grow into it... but it's still too big. Husband dressed her, I had no idea it was so big and didn't have time to take it in anyways. Pink sandals, proudly from the Dollar General.

Dang, I'm cheap frugal.

Door mat- from the Dollar General, praying to be put out of it's misery.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

I think I've worn this before, but this is a shawl vest thingy I ordered from Earthbound Trading Co.'s clearance online (those prices get stupid cheap!). I didn't realize how much it looks like a throw rug until I posed like that. I think it used to be a rug at some point. It's awfully thick.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Sorry for the super inconsistencies in posting and blog reading. I've got too many projects going on right now and kids and a home and a husband and stuff...

Aaaaaanywhoooo. Sunday, I wore this dress I bought from Ross Dress for Less for Easter. Because Easter was during a uh, .. ahem... special week... wearing white was entirely out of the question. I put the dress to the side on a pile stuff beside my bed and forgot all about it.

But here it is now!

The dress is pretty darn gauzy and I had to wear a black cotton spaghetti strap tank under it because my leopard print bra still showed through with a white satin camisole.

I had to wear my dreaded half slip, even though the dress has an underskirt because my electric blue panties were showing through. After all that, you could still see hints of blue through the skirt and Hollie doesn't do neutral undies so I just had to shrug it off and hope no one noticed.

Aaaaand... my girdle is an Asian 3X which means it fits like a medium and it is TIGHT.

Dadgummit that's how I like it. What's the point of wearing a tummy tucker if you can't feel your organs being displaced?

But I couldn't bend over to buckle my sandals so I slipped on some silver $1 Old Navy flip flops and went on my way. Flip flops to church? A church that's not in Hawaii?

SHAMEFUL! BLASPHEMOUS!

Nah, not really. Nowhere in the bible does it read, "thou shalt not wear rubber shoes to church" but here in the South (especially if you're black... blame tradition) you dress your VERY best to church. Sometimes hats, gloves, matching shoe/purse combos and all.

Flip flops are my lazy shoes and I could hear my mother in my head hollering at me to go change my shoes, "You are NOT wearing flip flops to church! Go put on some REAL shoes! Take some pride in yourself!"

Man it feels, good to be so naughty.

Aaaand here's a new necklace I got from eBay. It's has two layers and the bottom pendant is a mirror. Look closely, you can see the grey sky in it. I'm also slightly obsessed with this nail polish color. It's called "moody" and I hate that so much. It's not freaking moody. It's cheerful as eff. I want a job naming nail polish colors! How cool would that be?

Here's the pic of the necklace from eBay since I didn't get a good closeup of all the purty details.

Oh yeah! I'm doing a giveaway for one of my magic wrap skirt thingies over at my other blawg.

about me.

Hello! I'm Hollie. I'm a 32 year old social media manager . I like cheesy historical fiction romance novels, belly dancing, Pinterest surfing, world music, dressing up in costumes, dreaming and food.... and dreaming of food. I'm married to an intellectual redneck and we live in an East Texas trailer park with our wacky little boy, River and our baby girl, Cedar. Things get weird around here and I'm gonna tell you all about it. Check out my other blawg here >> http://www.quirkybohemianmama.com/